$200,000 ‘not a lot of money’

IN THE eyes of the internet, South Australian Senator Lucy Gichuhi is a celebrity and a meme legend.

But internet fame aside, she is still going to have to fork out the thousands of dollars she owes to the Australian taxpayer for misusing public funds.

Joining politics in 2016, Senator Gichuhi has been a member of the South Australian Liberal Party since February.

Senator Lucy Gichuhi on Kenyan TV.

And in those past few months, Senator Gichuhi is facing mounting pressure to explain her apparent misuse of taxpayer funds, spending more than $12,000 on trips to Sydney for "electoral business" despite being hundreds of kilometres away from her Adelaide office.

According to parliamentary records obtained byThe Advertiser, taxpayers regularly footed the bill for flights given to Senator Gichuhi's family members including a trip to Sydney in April last year, before she was sworn into Parliament.

Senator Gichuhi also claimed $4000 for two one-night trips to Sydney, one of which was for an appearance on ABC's Q&A.

Politicians appearing on Q&A normally charge all of their expenses back to the taxpayer.

In October, Senator Gichuhi also billed taxpayers more than $2000 to fly her family from Darwin down to Adelaide for her birthday.

In a tweet yesterday, Senator Gichuhi agreed to repay the $2139 she spent for her birthday and said it had come from a "misunderstanding of travel rules".

Regarding the media reports about my travel expenses, this was an administrative error involving misunderstanding of travel rules.

I’ve raised an invoice from the department to pay the costs of $2139 in full.